Pine Island, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pine Island, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Pine Island lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Pine Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Island — the short answer
Pine Island, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4b is Pine Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Island's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Island
Each reading below is measured for Pine Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Island runs about 171 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPine Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Pine Island is in
Pine Island sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Goodhue County.
What Grows in Pine Island
Every plant below cleared Pine Island's own zone 4b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Island?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Pine Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTRYSIDE AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2500 ft
- 109N15W32CAB 01 Pine IslandNitrate · 0.9 mi
- PINE ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 15434Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Howards Auto BodyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HOWARD'S AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Van Wyhe Dairy Supply IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PINE ISLAND CITY HALLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LAND O LAKES - PINE ISLANDToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- LAND O LAKES - PINE ISLANDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PINE ISLAND CITY OFBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CHS Pine Island C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Island's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Pine Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Island — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (78 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pine Island
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Island average
Your land is one point inside Pine Island
Everything above resolves to Pine Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Pine Island Average
Pine Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pine Island
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Island
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Island's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Island's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Island, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Island average
How we know this about Pine Island
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pine Island’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Pine Island
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Island typically lands around Apr 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 16.
When is the first frost in Pine Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Island typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Island sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 29, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Island?
The federal record around Pine Island is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pine Island?
From about Sep 13 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Island's scale — its 4b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Island's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Pine Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine Island's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,969 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 13 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Island, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Island's boundary and the 3,969 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pine Island's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Island's 3,969 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goodhue County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goodhue County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Goodhue County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Island's 3,969 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,969 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Pine Island-wide figureread your own land →
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